


This Feeling Calls For Everything (That I Am Not)

by WonderlandPup



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Character Death, M/M, Slight SuChen - Freeform, Soulmates, i'll add tags as i add chapters, kpop boys in space, sci fi, suggested xiuhan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:28:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28253928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderlandPup/pseuds/WonderlandPup
Summary: All Baekhyun wanted was to find a nice, safe planet to live onORStowing away on a ship leads to adventure, not peace
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay, Huang Zi Tao | Z.Tao/Wu Yi Fan | Kris
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	This Feeling Calls For Everything (That I Am Not)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! So this has been a WIP since 2017. Whew. And now, rounding the end of 2020....I had 40+ pages of story on a google doc, and still no plot. I told myself I would have this whole thing done and posted by Christmas, but between me and all of you, I don't think that's happening. I did realize though, that maybe it was so difficult because I was looking at the whole story all at once, so I thought I would post in chapters and see if that helps. Wish me luck, and if you find this fic, I hope you like it. Stay safe, and have a happy holiday season!
> 
> Title from 'Stray Italian Greyhound' by Vienna Teng

Baekhyun crouched in his hiding place, closed off behind a door to a cramped cabinet in what he assumed was an engine room. He held his pathetically empty bag in front of him, clinging to it as though it were his teddy bear, or maybe his shield. It may as well have been his shield for all the fighting he knew how to do. Though it would most likely would have been a better shield had Baekhyun been able to fill it properly with food. 

But he had little of his own food, and for all his thieving prowess, no skill would allow him to take food from somebody that had as little as him. Between the lack of food, lack of coin, and lack of clothes save for what he was already wearing, his bag was little more than a sack of cloth, and in the end, would do nothing to save him should the crew of the Calypso find him and decide to kill him for stowing away.

He squirmed, uncomfortable in his position, but unwilling to move for fear of being caught. He knew nothing about the people who ran this ship, nothing of how cruel or kind they might be. The Calypso was the first non-government sanctioned ship to land on the ports of Uurth in over a year, and there was no telling how long it would be until another came along. With a goodbye to Heechul, and a leap of faith, Baekhyun had cracked the security systems and slipped inside, just before the ship took off again. 

He hissed in pain when the ship jolted slightly, and his foot slid out from under him, hitting the cabinet door with a solid thud. 

“Did you hear that?” A voice came from the other side of the door, further down the room, and Baekhyun's eyes widened. He curled into himself as much as possible, trying to block as much of his body as he could with his meager excuse of protection in the bag. 

The sound of cabinet doors opening and closing filled the room, each one getting closer to Baekhyun, who felt his heart beating erratically, setting its own pace so fast, and thumping so loudly that Baekhyun was surprised it hadn't given him away yet. He took a choked breath, closing his eyes, and then there was light flooding his dark, cramped, cabinet.

“Well, what do we have here? A little stowaway?” The voice speaking was silky smooth, and soothed Baekhyun’s fitful heartbeat, despite the words.

“He looks so scared,” a second voice fretted, sounding concerned. It wasn't as smooth or soothing as the first voice, but it reached out to Baekhyun, pulling him in, and Baekhyun opened his eyes so he could see the speaker.

Two men stood in front of him, neither looking particularly hostile, but not welcoming either. Baekhyun swallowed hard.

“How did you get here?” It was the first voice, belonging to the shorter of the men, and Baekhyun couldn't hold back the whimper of fear that came when he felt power ripple through the man’s voice.

“Myeonnie, stop, you’re scaring him.” the taller chided gently. “What’s your name?” the taller man smiled at Baekhyun, showcasing deep dimples, but Baekhyun gave no answer, not understanding what was happening or why they hadn't killed him yet. “Oh, it’s okay love. We aren't going to hurt you. Trust me.”

“Baekhyun. My name is Baekhyun.” His voice was raspy from thirst, and he winced.

“And I’m Yixing. There, see how easy that was, love?” The taller man said, as he reached forward suddenly, gently pulling Baekhyun out of the cabinet before Baekhyun realized what was happening. Standing in front of them, he felt entirely too self-conscious about himself under their scrutinizing gazes. 

His eyes met Yixing’s, just for one, mesmerizing second, and felt a shiver of...something, go up his spine. Something in him clicked, was fixed, but Baekhyun hadn’t realized that anything was wrong to need to fix it. Yixing’s eyes widened, and Baekhyun looked down before anything else could happen. Of course he’d chosen a ship with someone magical on it.

“He’s so skinny. Way too skinny.” The shorter man’s voice broke through his thoughts. “I’m going to go find some food. Xing, take him to Yifan.” 

“Sure thing.” Yixing’s eyes dragged up and down Baekhyun’s body again as the first man left, and he let out a sigh. “You really are too skinny, love. Don’t you ever eat?”

Baekhyun bristled at the question. Of course he ate. Heechul would even give Baekhyun some of his own portion of food when things were hard, which was, quite literally, always. Heechul did the best he could to make sure Baekhyun was taken care of, and Baekhyun didn’t appreciate the insinuation that he didn’t, even if this Yixing didn’t mean anything by it. 

Yixing, as if sensing his displeasure, smiled harmlessly at him, and the dimples were back. Oh boy. 

“Come along, love. I’ll take you to Yifan and he’ll decide what to do with you while Junmyeon gets you some food.”

************

“So how’d you get on my ship?”

Baekhyun swallowed hard, looking down. The room was full of boys, all seeming around his own age, and he hated being the center of attention. “Your security systems are a bit...old school. It wasn’t hard to crack.”

A boy in the corner of the room squawked in indignation. “I made this whole ship! Including those systems! Don’t insult my baby!”

“I wasn’t trying to insult your baby, I swear. I’ve been on the streets for a couple years, and my mentor taught me how to break all kinds of codes and security systems. Everything I’ve seen of your ship is really great.” 

Baekhyun's rambling. He knows he’s rambling but he never could stop himself when he was nervous. “Except that one lurch after you guys took off. That was kind of painful. Of course, not as painful as this time where-”

Yixing gently puts his hand over Baekhyun’s mouth to shut him up, humming with amusement, just as the boy who apparently built the ship scowled with indignation. 

“That wasn’t the Calypso's fault! Chanyeol just needs to learn how to pilot better.”

“Hey shut up Jongdae! I’m still learning!”

Jongdae muttered under his breath, something along the lines of Chanyeol learning to pilot on a different ship.

“You’re a codebreaker, huh? Can you get into anything? Do you steal?” Yifan leaned forward to get a better look at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun pulled back a little. Did Yifan think Baekhyun had snuck on board just to steal from them?

“I mean...well, yeah. I wasn’t here just to steal from you, but you had to steal to get anything on Uurth. Even food. There just wasn’t enough for everyone.”

“False.” the tanned boy sitting next to Jongdae interjected. “Planet Uurth is barren, but with the replicated ecosystems of the original planet Earth, food has been plentiful, with crops growing enough to feed all of Uurth approximately three times over.”

Baekhyun gives a curious look towards him. “There’s a difference between how much food is made or grown, and how much is available. If you aren’t an aristocrat, you’ll starve there, no doubt. I knew men who worked the garden fields growing that food. Good men. They starved, because they couldn’t take the food that they grew. It all went to the top, and from there, only the rich can eat.”

“Noted.” The boy’s eyes glowed for a second, and again, Baekhyun wondered what he’d gotten himself into. 

Jongdae, having noticed the look on Baekhyun’s face, grinned. “Cool, right? I built him myself, too.”

“Wait, built him? He’s a robot?”

“An android. K.A-1. But we all just call him Kai. He’s a part of the family now.”

Baekhyun swallowed. “Nice to meet you, Kai,” he said faintly. Kai just gave him a warm smile.

“Hey, boss?” The boy with all the tails was looking at some screen in his hands, and Yifan’s attention was immediately diverted, his amused gaze at the boys turning serious as he looked at the boy. Baekhyun tried really hard not to stare at the strange boy as his tails waved behind him.

“What’s up, Han?”

“There’s a ship coming up on our flank. Looks fancy enough to be aristocratic, not heavily guarded enough to be Imperial. Codes might be a problem if we don’t wanna spill blood, but there should be some good stuff on here.”

Yixing leaned into Baekhyun’s side. “Huli Jing.” he said softly.

“What?”

“Lu Han. He’s a Huli Jing. I could see you wondering about the tails.” 

He pulled away again just as Yifan turned to Baekhyun, the leader’s pensive face sliding into an easy smirk.

“Time to shine, Baekkie boy. Do this right, and you can join the crew of the Calypso. If you don’t wanna do it, we’ll just drop you off at the next sad little planet we land on. You in?”

Baekhyun looked at the boys, at Yixing, and something in him shuddered at the thought of leaving. 

“I’m in.”

************

All eyes landed on the foreign ship approaching the Calypso and each crew member crowded around the viewing bay, all seeming excited at this new adventure.

Baekhyun, on the other hand, was more on the anxious end of the spectrum.

His mind raced with all the ways this was going to go, and just as Siwon and Heechul had taught him, he started looking for the worst, and the best, case scenario that he could prepare for. 

Baekhyun was pulled from his daze when he heard the commotion of the others preparing themselves for a fight. When he heard Yifan giving the orders for someone to ready the turrets in case it went south, that was enough to make him finally choke out what he was reluctant to say.

“I-I would prefer for this to be a peaceful interaction,” the words tumbled out and onto the floor, not seeming to reach anyone's ears.

Yifan glanced at him, and held out a hand to stop the crew member from going to the turrets, but the captain made no move to heed Baekhyun’s request, or draw anyone’s attention to it. Baekhyun bit his lip, frustrated. This didn’t have to be a fight. Baekhyun’s whole life had been one long and deadly fight. He was tired of it all. And he damn sure wasn’t about to fight someone else's battle. But, he mused to himself, that’s probably what he got for sneaking onto ships when he didn’t know what they did or where they were going. 

He shook his head, clearing his mind. “This doesn’t have to be violent.” 

Baekhyun felt himself huff in annoyance, as all the boys continued to ignore him. Yixing looked down at him patiently, and waited for everyone else's attention to follow suit, and when they didn’t, he looked at him with something close to understanding before giving a loud whistle. The boys froze, looking over to him and Baekhyun.

“Don’t you think, that if Baek here is gonna be getting us the loot on that ship, we should find out what his plan is?” Yixing asked pointedly. 

Baekhyun felt his face flush. He hated being the center of attention, but now he was, which was a solution to his dilemma and a whole new problem, all in one. Yixing, warm and solid and thrumming with energy right next to him, drawing Baekhyun’s attention and keeping it, seemed to be a problem and solution all on his own, too, but he was a problem that Baekhyun knew he could deal with later. Right now, there were other problems to handle.

“Look, I don’t know what it is about this ship, but something in it calls out to you. I felt it on Uurth, and if that ship doesn’t have a lot of weapons like you said, then they aren’t here to attack. They’re here because they feel that call, too. Use it to our advantage. Wait for them to get close, and request to let us board. They’ll be curious, they’ll want to know what’s so special about us. If I’m part of the group that goes in, I can hack their stuff, and while I’m with the group and we’re distracting whoever owns that ship, you guys can sneak on after I disable the security, steal whatever you want, and when my group comes back, we jet off before those people know anything’s missing.”

Yifan smirks, and Baekhyun knows. Getting these boys to listen to him had been a test. And even though Yixing had helped him, he had just passed.

************

Yifan watches the readouts as the crew all follow Baekhyun’s plan. It wasn’t bad, in all. He had still sent Zitao to the turrets as backup, but so far it was all going smoothly. Baekhyun had gone over to the over ship, along with Minseok, Yixing, and Junmyeon. 

Yifan listens to their conversations through the mic with half his attention, hearing Minseok catch the attention of the other crew with his emphatic speeches, as Baekhyun slipped away and got to work on the security system. Yifan’s attention snapped back to the conversation when it sounded like they were noticing Baekhyun’s absence, but Junmyeon laughed, and their attention was stolen away again. 

Yifan grinned. Having a siren on the crew was always helpful. Baekhyun got the systems open, and slipped back to the group just as the conversation was switching over to Yixing and Junmyeon aweing them with stories of adventures, and Yifan sent Sehun and Kyungsoo over to raid the ship.

The tips of Han’s tails twitched as the Huli Jing sat next to Yifan, lips curling in amusement. “Does Yixing sound like he’s showing off to you?”

Yifan huffs out a laugh, listening to the story more closely. Yixing is the one telling it, and while it’s true, of course, Yifan thinks Han is right. The story in particular is a bit much for this given situation. 

“Leave Xing alone. He’s allowed to show off if he wants to.”

Han snorts. “Sure.”

************

Baekhyun went to sleep that night in a room that Yifan had given him, after a celebratory dinner for a job well done. His mind swirled with thoughts of Yixing, and of missing home. He wondered, briefly, what Siwon would have thought of him joining what was basically a pirate crew, but as he drifted off, exhausted after the day, with a full stomach for the first time in years, all he could do was marvel at the fact that he already had his own room, his own space in this ship set aside just for him. Maybe, just maybe, this could be home, after all.


End file.
